


Animal Shelter

by EmberCartwright



Series: Tyzula Things [90]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Animal Shelter, Cats, Cute, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, Pet Names, Pet Store, cat moms, tyzula - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 23:56:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29816352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmberCartwright/pseuds/EmberCartwright
Summary: Ty Lee directs Azula to take them to a mysterious location one afternoon.
Relationships: Azula/Ty Lee (Avatar)
Series: Tyzula Things [90]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2019697
Comments: 11
Kudos: 91





	Animal Shelter

**Author's Note:**

> Suggestion from GlitraHasConsumedMe :))

Azula sat typing something on her computer while Ty Lee walked around on her hands in Azula’s room. 

“Let’s do something,” Ty Lee said, flipping onto her feet and breathing onto Azula’s neck, sending chills through her body. 

Azula brought her hand behind her neck and covered the spot Ty Lee was blowing on. 

“Don’t you have an essay due too?” Azula asked. 

Ty Lee took her hand and squeezed it in her own. 

“Yeah, but a draft isn’t due for ages!” Ty Lee said. “I want to spend time with you!”

Azula opened a tab to their school’s class dashboard website and changed to Ty Lee’s account. She clicked into her English class and opened her essay assignment. 

“It’s due tonight,” Azula said. 

“That can’t be right,” Ty Lee said, leaning over Azula’s shoulder to look at the computer. 

Azula grabbed Ty Lee’s cheeks playfully with one hand and directed her gaze to where she was pointing at the screen with her other hand.

“Tonight at 11:59,” Azula read. 

Ty Lee scrunched up her eyebrows. 

“I thought I had at least a few days,” she murmured. 

Azula smirked and turned her head to give her a kiss before letting her go. 

“Do you have anything started?” She asked, swiveling her chair to face Ty Lee. 

Ty Lee shook her head and dropped herself onto Azula’s lap. 

“But you’ll write something for me, right?” She asked playfully, curling into Azula’s chest. 

“Why would I do that,” Azula asked.

“So we can do something fun!” Ty Lee said, pulling down the collar of Azula’s shirt and kissing her chest gently. 

“Oh,” Azula said, stroking Ty Lee’s hair. “Is this the kind of fun you had in mind?”

“No, not really,” Ty Lee admitted. “You’re just so kissable.”

“Said no one ever,” Azula replied. “I think you’re talking about yourself,” she added, bending down to kiss Ty Lee’s head.

“So will you write for me,” Ty Lee asked, batting her eyes. 

“I think you might be spoiled, darling,” Azula sighed. 

“Well whose fault is that?” Ty Lee asked pouting. 

“Mine,” Azula acquiesced. “I’ve gotten too nice…”

“You slashed the tires of a car that was in your regular parking spot at school,” Ty Lee said. 

“Only three, because insurance will pay to replace all four.”

“And you were going to key it before I stopped you!”

“It’s my spot,” Azula shrugged.

“That is not a sign of getting too nice,” Ty Lee giggled.

“Ok, I will rephrase,” Azula said. “I’ve gotten too soft on you.”

“I won’t disagree there.”

“I can help you brainstorm for your draft,” Azula said. “That’s my best offer.”

“Yay!” Ty Lee said. 

Both girls knew this meant that Azula would probably end up writing the paper while Ty Lee sat on her and made unhelpful comments, and neither girl was too upset by it. 

“I still need to write my paper,” Azula complained. 

“Come with me to a surprise location for a little bit and then write after,” Ty Lee suggested. “I think you’ll enjoy yourself.”

“Fine,” Azula sighed. “Where are we going?”

Ty Lee ignored her question, squealed and shot up, taking Azula’s hand and tugging her out of the room, down the stairs and out of the house, barely giving her enough time to grab her keys and lock the door. 

“You’re so excited,” Azula commented as Ty Lee bounced in the passenger seat. 

“I’ve wanted to go forever,” she said as Azula turned on her car. 

“Why didn’t you tell me that,” Azula asked, rubbing her leg. “Homework aside, you know I love going places with you.”

“Okay, forever was a little bit of an overstatement,” Ty Lee said. “But the idea came to me during school today and I couldn’t get it out of my head.”

“Alright,” Azula said, backing out of the driveway. “Where am I going?”

“Go down main and turn left before the diner,” Ty Lee instructed. “Pull into the large outlet lot and park all the way at the end.”

“Sounds good,” Azula said. 

“Do you wanna know where we’re going?” Ty Lee asked. 

“I thought it was a surprise,” Azula said dryly. 

“Oh yeah,” Ty Lee said. 

“Do you want to tell me?” Azula asked. 

“Yes!” Ty Lee squeaked.

“Well keep it in,” Azula said. “You wanted to keep it a secret so you have to sit with it now for the whole three minute drive.”

“‘Zula that’s mean!” Ty Lee whined. 

Azula squeezed Ty Lee’s thigh gently as she pulled onto the main road. 

“Practice patience,” Azula said. 

Ty Lee slumped in the seat and crossed her arms. 

“Patience is stupid,” Ty Lee pouted. 

“Good things come to those who wait,” Azula said. 

“That’s not what you wanted last night,” Ty Lee said, turning to her. 

Azula rolled her eye, took Ty Lee’s hand in her own, and brought it up to kiss it. 

“Aren’t you just hilarious,” she said, making the turn before the diner. 

“Yep,” Ty Lee said, still sounding grumpy. 

Azula turned into the indicated lot and parked her car at the end. There was one other car in the entire parking lot. She scanned the stores around her before her eyes locked on a large colorful sign. 

“Agni, are you intending to go into the-”

“Animal shelter!” Ty Lee screamed and scrambled out of the car.

Azula got out of the car with careful, reluctant moves. 

“Come on ‘Zula,” Ty Lee said, taking her hand again. 

“Wait,” Azula said. 

“What?” Ty Lee asked, looking at her and tilting her head to the side. 

“I want a kiss first.”

Ty Lee smiled and leaned into Azula, putting her arms behind her neck. Azula pulled her closer by the small of her back and kissed her gently and then with more passion. 

After a few minutes Ty Lee pulled away. 

“Are you ready now,” she hummed, wiping Azula’s lower lip with her thumb.

Azula snapped at her playfully and nodded.

Ty Lee grabbed her fingers and laced hers between them. 

Azula allowed herself to be towed to the store but before entering, she extracted her hand from Ty Lee’s and opened the door, allowing her girlfriend to fly inside. 

Stepping in after her, Azula was instantly hit by the sights and smells of animals. 

Ty Lee was already nowhere to be found. 

“Baby come over here,” her voice yelled from deep inside the store. 

Azula blushed as the only other person in the whole building, a woman milling by a desk, looked at her. 

Following the sound of Ty Lee’s call Azula found her squatting in front of a cat. It was a calico cat that was staring at her with wide golden eyes.

“Look how cute,” Ty Lee said, grabbing Azula’s hand and dragging her down to sit on the ground by the cat’s cage. 

“I’m sitting in fur,” Azula said stiffly, wrinkling her nose. 

“She looks at me like you do,” Ty Lee said, watching the cat watch her. “She has eyes just like yours.”

“Hmm,” Azula grunted.

Ty Lee reached her hand through the bars of the cage and the cat allowed her to pet her head. She moved closer to her touch.

“She reacts to me touching her like you do to,” Ty Lee giggled. 

“Maybe you should leave me for it,” Azula said. 

“Her,” Ty Lee corrected.

“I wish you two a very happy life together,” Azula said coldly. “Also look at this sign,” Azula said pointing to the placard on the cage. “It is an antisocial and aggressive cat. Don’t complain to me when you get scratched.”

Ty Lee tsked her tongue at Azula and grabbed her hand, pushing it through the bars. 

“Hey!” Azula complied as the cat ducked out of the way of her splayed fingers. “See it doesn’t like me.”

“She can sense your tredipation,” Ty Lee said. 

“Trepidation,” Azula corrected. 

“Whatever,” Ty Lee said. “Relax your wrist.”

“No,” Azula said, stubbornly. “I can already sense that we won’t get on.”

Ty Lee pinched a pressure point in Azula’s hand, causing it to instantly droop. She guided her hand over the cat and this time she allowed Ty Lee to place Azula’s hand down onto her head. 

“See,” Ty Lee said as she let go, but Azula kept stroking the cat. 

Azula didn’t say anything. She was enraptured by the creature beneath her hand. The way it felt, the way it reacted, the way it purred and let Azula know that she was doing the right thing. 

She could sense the cat's intelligence and her cleverness, her ability to get what she wanted. 

“Would you like me to take her out so you can hold her?” A voice asked behind them. 

Azula snapped her still limp wrist out of the cage and swiveled around. 

The woman who was working in the shelter was standing behind them. 

“No that won’t be necessary,” Azula said at the same time that Ty Lee replied, “yes, absolutely!”

The woman looked between the girls, confused on what to do. 

“Please ‘Zula,” Ty Lee asked. “Admit it, you like her.”

Azula sighed and nodded.

“Fine you can hold it,” she said. “But fix my hand first,” she added, holding it out to Ty Lee. 

Ty Lee smiled and grabbed her hand, reversing the chi block, as the employee lifted the cat out of the cage. 

“Follow me,” she said. 

Ty Lee and Azula followed her to a different part of the building with an enclosed area large enough for a few people to sit. 

Ty Lee hopped over the knee high fence and Azula stepped gingerly over it. 

Extending her hands out Ty Lee took the cat from the woman and cuddled it to her chest. It squirmed. 

“Put it down Ty,” Azula said. “It doesn’t enjoy that.”

“Her name is Zelle,” the woman said. 

Ty Lee carefully placed Zelle down and sat down next to her, starting to coo at the cat. 

Azula sat down and watched her girlfriend desperately fight for the apparently indifferent cat’s attention. She chuckled when the cat curled up a few feet away from Ty Lee and seemed to doze off. 

“You call her,” Ty Lee encouraged.

“Me?” Azula asked. 

Ty Lee nodded. 

Azula squinted skeptically. 

“You’re going to get wrinkles,” Ty Lee warned. “Just do it.”

Azula exhaled deeply and snapped her fingers. The cat perked up a little. 

“Come here Zelle,” she said sternly, the same way she talked to people she didn’t like very much. 

“She’ll never come to you if you’re rude,” Ty Lee said. 

“What do you know? She’s not coming to you and you’re being nice,” Azula said. “Let me try a different approach.”

Ty Lee pursed her lips but didn’t say anything. 

“Zelle,” Azula said. “Come over here.”

Surprisingly, the cat stood and walked over to her. It stepped onto her crossed leg, into her lap, and curled up as Azula sat petting it triumphantly. 

“I win,” she said smugly to a shocked looking Ty Lee.

“But how,” Ty Lee said. 

“I am superior in every way,” Azula boasted cavalierly. 

“Yes you are,” Ty Lee said, looking a little put out.

Azula studied her for a moment. 

“Come sit next to me darling,” she said. 

Ty Lee perked up significantly at the pet name and crawled over, sitting right up against Azula’s side. 

Lifting Zelle carefully, Azula slid her into Ty Lee’s lap, leaving her head in Azula’s lap. The cat didn’t seem to have any complaints. 

Azula stroked the cat’s head with one finger, and Ty Lee felt the purr emanating in her small body. 

“She’s just like you,” Ty Lee whispered into Azula’s ear. 

“You already said that and I still don’t see it,” Azula replied. 

“I think you do,” Ty Lee said, kissing her cheek softly, before returning to stroking the cat’s back. “You’re a natural with cats,” she added. 

Azula looked at Ty Lee and raised an eyebrow. 

Ty Lee’s eyes widened and she smacked her shoulder, startling Zelle who leapt off of their laps and darted across the enclosure.

“You’re so dirty,” Ty Lee whined. 

“I didn’t even say anything,” Azula said, smirking. “And now you’ve scared her off.”

“I didn’t mean to, it was an automatic reac-” Ty Lee paused. “Wait, what did you just say?”

“That you scared the cat away?” Azula asked. “That’s visually evident.”

“No,” Ty Lee said, breaking into a goofy grin. “You said, ‘now you’ve scared _her_ off.’ Not it, but her.”

“So what,” Azula muttered, turning her attention back to the cat. 

It sat watching her with its piercing gold eyes and Azula watched Zelle with hers. 

“So you like her!” Ty Lee said excitedly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Azula said. “I think we should go. This was fun but I have two essays to write.”

“Ok,” Ty Lee said sadly, standing up and brushing the fur off of her pants. “Bye Zelle, it’s been an honor.”

Azula shifted uncomfortably at her girlfriend's upset demeanor. 

“Zelle,” she called. 

This time the cat came right away. 

“You’re very well trained, aren’t you,” Azula said. “Not antisocial or aggressive at all,” she commented. 

Scooping the cat up, Azula stood. Zelle seemed comfortable in her arms. 

“Look,” she said to Ty Lee. Her girlfriend looked at her. “We can come back again at a different time if you want…”

“What if she’s gone by then,” Ty Lee said. 

“Then you’ll play with a different cat. This one doesn’t even like you that much.”

“But she likes you,” Ty Lee pointed out, tucking a strand of hair behind Azula’s ear, causing her to blush. 

“If people typically find her unsavory, she’ll still be here,” Azula reassured her. 

“Hold on a second,” Ty Lee asked, getting very excited. 

“What,” Azula asked warily. 

Ty Lee looked from the cat in Azula’s arms, up to her girlfriend and back down again.

“No, absolutely not,” Azula said. 

“Please ‘Zula,” Ty Lee begged. 

“We are not adopting a cat that we just got introduced to an hour ago,” Azula said. 

“‘Zula please, we’re going to be such good cat moms!” Ty Lee pleaded. 

Azula shook her head and started walking back towards the cage. 

“Don’t you want to make me happy,” Ty Lee complained. 

“Of course I do,” Azula asked. “But we don’t know the first thing about taking care of a cat.”

“We can learn!”

“You hate learning.”

“I’ll learn this,” Ty Lee said, exasperated. 

“Why don’t we go home, you prove you will learn cat caretaking, and we’ll come back,” Azula suggested. 

“No,” Ty Lee said. “The second you get me out of here you’ll distract me, and out argue me and you won’t be holding a cat to your chest anymore.”

As if to emphasize her point Zelle looked up at Azula and meowed cutely. 

“What do you know,” Azula said quietly to the cat. “If we’re going to have some kind of understanding, you have to be on my side.”

“You’re considering it?” Ty Lee asked. “Yay!”

“I’m considering nothing,” Azula replied, bending down to put the cat in the cage. 

She placed it down carefully and closed the gate. 

“Let’s go,” she said, straightening up. 

“Please, please, please,” Ty Lee asked, tugging on Azula’s sleeve. “I’ll do anything. Anything at all.”

“You already do that,” Azula reminded her lightly, taking her hand. 

Ty Lee stuck out her lip and widened her eyes. 

“No, don't do that…” Azula said. 

Ty Lee put her hands on Azula’s hips, causing her to flush deeply and look away. 

“W-what are you doing,” she asked, flustered. 

“Please baby,” Ty Lee whispered into Azula’s ear. “For me?”

She pressed herself tightly against Azula making it hard for her to breathe, let alone argue. 

“Ty…”

“Baby I really want us to get this cat. I’m begging you,” Ty Lee said, in her best seductive voice. 

“I-” Azula said, cutting herself off. 

She could feel the shelter employee watching them, compounding her embarrassment. 

The way she saw it she could berate Ty Lee for her highly inappropriate actions and drag her away from the store as she had a tantrum, or give in and get the cat that was watching sadly from her cage; the cat that Azula had taken a small liking to. 

“Fine,” she said quietly. 

“What,” Ty Lee asked, stepping back.

“Let’s adopt a cat,” Azula said, rubbing her temples. “But if you don’t help I’m bringing her back!”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Ty Lee said, bouncing forward and trying to kiss Azula but her girlfriend held her back. 

“Your behavior was unacceptable just then,” Azula said. “And you can thank me properly later.”

Ty Lee nodded hard and ran to the shelter employee who was still watching Azula judgmentally. 

**************************************************************************************************************************************************

Several hours later Ty Lee sat on Azula's bed as Azula played with Zelle on the bedroom floor. She was rolling a ball of yarn around the cat on the rug. 

“‘Zula!” Ty Lee exclaimed. “Come to bed!” 

“You’re the one that wanted a cat,” Azula said. “Suffer the consequences of your actions.”


End file.
